Page 14 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

Elelira

“We have a visitor,” Beretta nods in the direction of the treeline as she gets dressed. We just shifted back and she is slipping back on her pants after cleaning off in the stream.

“I noticed.” Val sniffed him out the second he got there, but she was too focused on fighting with Beretta to stop and ask why he followed us. I’m glad it’s him and not Lachlan. That would have just angered Val more.

Cherum was more than welcome to follow me around all he liked as long as he didn't try pulling that babysitter nonsense on me like he did before, have an army stalk me everywhere I go.

Val would tear through any army he sent.

Even the thought of taking on that many warriors in a fight excites her.

She doesn't want to be overlooked or underestimated ever again.

He didn't call an army, though. Cherum just watched, wincing when the fighting got heavy, and twitching like he wanted to step in several times.

Val was winning the entire time, her aura and larger frame being a huge advantage to her.

Beretta enjoys a challenge, though, and she can hold her own, avoiding serious injury.

“He’s a fine looking specimen, that one,” Beretta chuckles, waving her fingers at him as he tries to look anywhere but at her bare chest and my naked frame.

I grunted in mild agreement. Cherum is a fine specimen, but I doubt Beretta will be able to get that out of him.

Even in my first life, Cherum was never one to play around with anyone outside of the brothel girls, and even then, Yasmin once told me he would rarely pay for services. He would mostly just tease and flirt.

“Shy, isn’t he?”

I washed the last of the blood out of my hair from a nasty gash I gave Beretta while we were sparring. She healed quickly, but the evidence of our brawl was left all over us when we shifted back. We had to take baths in the stream to rid us of it all.

Instead of answering her, I pulled the tunic she brought for me in the rucksack over my head, then yelled for Cherum to come over. “I know you’ve seen naked women before,” I smirked as he continued averting his gaze. He tripped on a large rock while walking over to us because of it.

“I have, but you’re my Luna, lass. I’ve never seen you naked, nor do I desire to.”

“Why not?” Beretta smacks my butt harshly, making me yelp and Val growl. “She looks quite exquisite in the nude. Our captain has had to order the men not to gaze at her because of how captivating she is?”

“Really?” I turned to stare at her, my brows pulling down. This is the first I’ve heard of it.

“Why do you think Little Joe is always so quick to bring you your clothes?”

“I thought that was just because he was shy about it.”

“Nope,” Beretta chuckles. “Captain had it out with everyone not to so much as glance at you when you were naked.” I bend over to pull on my pants, struggling to get my wet feet through the leg holes, and Beretta takes the opportunity to fondle my butt again.

She jiggles my cheeks in both her hands until I swat her away.

“As your best friend and first mate, I am the only one with that right.”

“Will you stop it?” I growled, jumping to get the tight-fitting pants she packed for me all the way on.

“You were blessed with a fine ass, princess ,” she used the title mockingly again. “Someone should be able to enjoy it.”

Cherum is watching us with a disbelieving look on his face. “Do you mean to say you make it a habit of strutting around naked?”

I shrugged. “If I do, what’s it to you?”

“Nothing,” he muttered, toying with the gravel with the toe of his boots. “I just didn’t expect that.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh at his shy demeanor. It's not fitting for his appearance. “I only strut around naked after shifting. I don’t just do it for fun.”

“No, sadly, she doesn't. Our princess is too prude to get her jollies rocked for the hell of it like some of us,” Beretta told him, wringing out her wet hair, saturating the front of her shirt in the process so it becomes see-through.

Cherum's eyes drop to her nipples showing through, then quickly look away as his cheeks turn as red as his beard again.

Beretta just smirks and continues on. “The Captain is protective of her too. Her being naked after shifting is never an issue, Delta.”

“No, but the reason why he is so protective of her may be,” Cherum muttered.

I rolled my eyes. “He’s like a big brother to me. Actually, he’s a lot like you.” I playfully hit his shoulder, “I get that same protectiveness from him. There is nothing to worry about from him."

“Really?” Beretta looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Yeah,” I slipped on the vest from the bag, then dug around it for stockings to wear under the boots. “Probably why he doesn’t like seeing me naked too. He’s just a brother to me, and treats me like his little sister.”

Cherum is pressing his lips together, looking at me with amusement.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” he says, his eyes crinkled in the corners like he’s smiling.

“You have to admit that even as a big brother or whatever, the captain is a fine looking man. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind playing house with your big brother if the opportunity ever came about.”

“No thank you,” I groaned. “Feel free to play house with him yourself. I really don’t have that desire.”

“How interesting," he murmured quietly. "Aren’t you a saint,” Beretta mused, looking at me curiously. “Has any man ever gotten your knickers moist?”

“Gross,” I threw a rock at her feet, trying to get on the new boots. The laces were difficult to cross around the hooks just right.

“Not even your hunky looking mate?”

My cheeks instantly begin to heat, and even Val stirs.

My mind starts recalling all the times Lachlan and I were intimate in any way.

All the kisses and him holding me while I slept.

The evenings we would spend in his mother’s garden and the nights where he and Killian would take care of brushing my hair for me after I got ready for bed.

There were times we went swimming, and he would just hold me in the water.

Being wet and with so little fabric between us, it made my mind wander to elicit thoughts back then.

He would always stay close to me in the water, like he was scared I would swim away if he wasn’t close by. I know now why that is.

Still, those moments with my mate, even though the time we were happy together was so much shorter compared to our first life, it felt so real. I really thought he loved me.

Maybe he did. Maybe he still does. The cards are finally all out on the table, but that doesn’t change what has already happened. It seems like the only reason he wanted me at all was because of the mate bond.

He took his pack to war for me, though. He killed my uncle to bring me back. He didn’t even know the crimes my uncle committed against me.

If he just didn’t have to bring up the betrayal pains he felt…..it would make thinking about all this so much less painful.

I loved him. I truly, deeply did. I can’t deny that after seeing him again. That’s why it hurts so much. I would have given him all of me….

“It’s too late for that now,” I whispered, my emotions clogging my throat so my voice sounded rough.

“Lass,” Cherum dropped down in front of me, taking my hands from my laces and then nudging his hand under my chin to get me to look at him. “He loves you. Don’t say it’s too late.”

I bit my lip, fighting back the heat building behind my eyes.

Val got most of our aggression out while fighting Beretta, leaving us with mostly sorrow and despair from everything that has happened and was said earlier.

If it was anyone else but Cherum that followed us out, I wouldn’t like feeling this vulnerable.

I’d probably lash out and let Val take over, like I did with Lachlan earlier.

I can’t lash out at Cherum that easily, though.

He is still my Delta. My ultimate protector.

I feel safe with him, even now. I know I can physically handle myself, but I also know emotionally I can still be a mess, and I trust Cherum to help me through that mess right now.

“There is too much damage there,” I whisper, welcoming some of the calm he is trying to pour into me. “When I thought he was someone different, it was easy to consider that kind of life with him. I didn’t know he was the same man as before. Now….” I shook my head.

“Ela,” Cherum took my hands. “He is not the same man as before. I can promise you that.”

“How?” I said hoarsely. “How can you possibly promise something you have no memories of. You don’t know how cruel he was. You don’t know what miseries I had to live with every single day. Do you know how I found this secluded spot up the river?”

I stared at him, waiting for him to hesitantly shake his head.

“I used to have to hike all the way up here once a week to wash my own laundry. All of it. Rain or shine; hot or snowing, I would have to hike all the way from the packhouse to this spot to wash all my own bedding and clothing. Look at these rocks.” I pointed at the jagged surfaces.

“I had no real footwear, just ratty hand-me-down slippers, so my feet would be cut up and bloody after every trip. It was my only option if I wanted clean linens and clothes.”

He looked appalled, looking over the treeline at the castle, at the rocky path, then back at me.